Looking to cut your food costs? Consider these “rules” for saving money on food. So, you wanna save some money on groceries, do ya? Well, lucky for you, it’s really not that difficult. You don’t need to clip coupons — though they can help the right situation — and you don’t need to worry that you’ll […]

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Craving something fresh during these last weeks of winter? Try one of these delicious salads! Who says that winter needs to be gray and dreary? When you consider some of the fruits and vegetables that are plentiful and often on sale in winter, there’s no need to be sad. You can still eat the rainbow […]

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This quiche, rich with ham, Gruyere Cheese, and Leeks will make any breakfast, lunch, or dinner shine. I have always loved quiche. There’s something so delectable about rich creamy egg in a butter pie shell. Add in some ham, cheese, and leeks, and you’ve got a delicious breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Yes, you can have quiche […]

GET THE BOOK

This quiche, rich with ham, Gruyere Cheese, and Leeks will make any breakfast, lunch, or dinner shine. I have always loved quiche. There’s something so delectable about rich creamy egg in a butter pie shell. Add in some ham, cheese, and leeks, and you’ve got a delicious breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Yes, you can have quiche […]

BUY THE BOOK

You know how much I love a good Pantry Challenge, right? Well, a few weeks ago Becky Worley, a reporter for Good Morning America, contacted me and asked me to advise her on how to have a successful pantry challenge. I flew up to her home in Oakland last week where we raided her cupboard and […]

TAKE THE CHALLENGE

This quiche, rich with ham, Gruyere Cheese, and Leeks will make any breakfast, lunch, or dinner shine. I have always loved quiche. There’s something so delectable about rich creamy egg in a butter pie shell. Add in some ham, cheese, and leeks, and you’ve got a delicious breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Yes, you can have quiche […]

Cupcakes Sealed with a Kiss

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I was a little late joining the cupcake craze. But, our family loves it that I finally discovered how to make delicious cupcakes at home.

One thing that I love about cupcakes is that they lend themselves to letting the children help. Not only can you let your children help mix the batter and whip the frosting, but you can also let them go to town on the sprinkles.

And Valentine’s is a perfect occasion to make these cupcakes, sealed with a kiss.

I made these cupcakes using a funfetti cake mix without the ‘fetti. I’ve found that I can purchase “holiday” cake mixes for a very low price and then omit the holiday element to use the mix for any occasion. In this case, I just didn’t mix in the sprinkles from the mix.

One of the advantages of the Funfetti cake mixes is that the batter is designed to suspend candies and sprinkles rather than let them drop to the bottom. We made a batch of cupcakes with M&M’s, Hershey kisses, and chocolate chips. The kisses did sink a tad, but the other candies stayed right in the heart of the cupcake where they belonged.

Squeeze the frosting onto the cupcakes in swirls and sprinkle candy sprinkles over the frosting. Let the kids help! Store the cupcakes in the refrigerator.

Put Your House in Order

I’m participating in a series, called “Put Your House in Order,” with a bunch of great bloggers. Each of us is tackling a different area of home management and sharing suggestions for organizing in the new year.

CUTE idea! My mom whipped up heart-shaped pancakes for Valentine’s Day morning. I’m publishing a little post about it on The Cheapskate Cook, but it’s a really cute simple way that helped us kiddos really look forward to Heart Day!

What a great idea! I didn’t realize that the funfetti batters could keep the fun stuff from falling to the bottom. I just picked up a bag of Hershey kisses at Target this weekend figuring I could share them among the kids on Valentine’s Day. Your idea is much better and will be much better appreciated by my kids.

The American Century Cookbook has a great quick icing recipe that doesn’t require much work. I can’t look it up right now, but I think it was a combination of confectioner sugar and butter.

Our favorite chocolate icing is the boxed one by Natural Nora. I hate to admit but I have about 10 boxes in the pantry right now because I stocked up when I found it at our grocery outlet.

I used the buttercream frosting to frost my first sheet cake. This recipe didn’t indicate how many items or what size cake it would frost. Good news, with 4 C powedered sugar, it frosted a 1/2 sheet just perfectly.

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